Pages

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Book Review: A Place In His Heart

Author:
Rebecca DeMarino

Publication
Date: June 3, 2014

Publisher:
Revell

Series:
The Southold Chronicles # 1

Anglican Mary
Langton longs to marry for love. Puritan Barnabas Horton is still in love with
his deceased wife and needs only a mother for his two young sons. And yet these
two very different people with very different expectations will take a leap of
faith, wed, and then embark on a life-changing journey across the ocean to the
Colonies. Along the way, each must learn to live in harmony, to wait on God,
and to recognize true love where they least expect to find it.

This heartfelt tale
of love and devotion is based on debut author Rebecca DeMarino’s own ancestors,
who came to Long Island in the mid-1600s to establish a life–and a legacy–in
the New World.

“Besides,
many women who marry for the social status fall in love later. It happens all
the time.”

This
was an awesome debut novel! I have really been in the mood for a historical
fiction novel lately, but I often find myself straying from them because they
are so large and filled with excessive information that is not always needed.
Every so often I run across a book that will not allow me to put it down. There
is just something about it that keeps me pulled in from the first page. This
was one of those books! We follow Mary and Barnabas who do not come together
like most married couples. Mary is trying to escape a man that her father
wishes for her to marry, and Barnabas is a widower, who cannot stop grieving
for his dead wife, with two small boys in desperate need of a mother, thus
their story begins.

Mary
and Barnabas were portrayed very realistically and this was a difficult task to
do because both character have experienced so many trials and disappointments,
but DeMarino allows the reader to experience all of their sufferings right
along with them. Because of their portrayal, I felt that I really knew these
characters and I was even arguing with them several times while reading. I
wanted to reach out and slap Barney every once in a while; I love when
characters are so well written that I feel like I can argue with them.

Rebecca
DeMarino wrote this book somewhat based on the lives of her ninth
great-grandmother and grandfather. She adds pieces of her own imagination, but
I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this book was loosely based on
DeMarino’s own family history. She focuses on the idea and theme that God is
faithful and the message was wonderfully portrayed and very obvious in the
lives of the character. I am looking forward to more in this series.

***A
free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Revell in exchange
for my honest review***

About Me

My name is Chelsey and I am the creator of Charming Chelsey's! I read and review anything and everything that I find to be "charming."
I accept ARCs or already released books for review, and I'm also available to participate in any blog tours or book reveals too. If anything, please don't hesitate to email me any time for any reason at: charmingchelseys(at)gmail(dot)com